Treasure Chest Thursday -- Ethel Jenkins Trunk

Last year I was gifted with a trunk which had belonged to my Grandmother Ethel Jenkins.  The trunk had been in the possession of my Aunt Louise following the death of my Grandmother in 1964.  When my Aunt passed away, the trunk remained in her husbands possession until his death last year.  Upon his death my cousin gave the trunk to my Uncle Bill, the last of Ethel's living children.

I received a call from my Uncle and his wife asking if I would like to join them for lunch. I did, and it was during this lunch that my Uncle told me the trunk, and all it's contents, were mine if I wanted it.  I couldn't believe my ears and immediately said YES!!  We made arrangements to meet in a few weeks time at his home for me to look through the trunk and take whatever I wished.

The morning of the day I was to see the trunk for the first time, I couldn't contain my excitement!  I had shared with my Mom and my siblings that I would be receiving the trunk and they too were eager to find out what it contained!  My oldest sister Caren, who had learned from our cousin that the trunk contained fabric, asked if she could have the fabric.  She is a wiz with needle and thread and an avid quilter, so I of course said yes!

When I arrived at Bill's home he took me out to his back patio where the trunk was being stored as there was no room in his small condo.

The trunk is a steamer style trunk measuring 33"x18.5"x23".  Inside it has a shallow lift out "drawer" with a deeper compartment below.

On the top of the trunk written in white paint is the name of my Great-Uncle, and older brother of my Grandmother.  He was Rolla David Jenkins and he moved to Novato, California from Pennsylvania between 1942-1945 with his wife Annie.

My Grandmother inherited the trunk upon the death of her brother, Rolla, in 1956.  Rolla had inherited the trunk upon the death of his mother, and my great-grandmother, Verlinda Ellen Hardman in 1941.

Inside this trunk was a plethora of family treasures!  I am so blessed that my uncle choose to pass tis trunk on to me!! I will be photographing and documenting all of the trunks contents over the next several weeks.  Join me each Thursday as I share these treasures!

Surname Saturday -- Royse

Royse

My research focus this past week has been on my Royse ancestors.  Primarily the Royse family featured in the photograph below.

photo courtesy of Royse desendant Karen Williams
Front row sitting left to right: Martha Royse, William Royse, Elizabeth Royse, Rachel Royse
Back Row standing Left to right: Allen Royse,James Royse, John Royse (directly behind Martha),
Henry Royse (directly behind William), (two girls behind Elizabeth..I don't know which is which) Nancy Royse and Susannah Royse, Elizabeth Royse and the young girl standing betweeen the two women sitting is Sara Royse

This photo was shared with me by the Great-Granddaughter of Martha Royse Depuy, Karen Williams.  Since receiving it I have been focused on discovering all I can on each person in the photo.

I was very lucky to find many members of this family featured in a book An Illustrated History of Umatilla and Morrow Counties by Colonel William Parsons and W.S. Shiach.  Featured in this history is John F. Royse, Nancy Royse Hardman Johnson, Rachel Royse Tash and William and Elizabeth Royse.

My Ancestral line to the Royse family is:

Hillary C. Green Marvier (1972-Living)

Theodore Stanley Green (1943-1973)

Sherri C Bestor Green Jewell (1945-Living)

Roman Nathaniel Green (1907-1947)

Ethel Talore Jenkins Green Guy (1912-1964)

David Henderson Jenkins (1858-1930)

Verlinda Ellen Hardman Jenkins (1870-1941)

David N. Hardman (1838-1893)

Nancy Royse Hardman Johnson (1850-1931)

William Royse (1816-1887)

Elizabeth White Royse (1819-????)

William Royse (1785-1834)

Martha McGuire Royse (1790-1834)

Frederick Royse (1750-1826)

Sarah Dewitt Royse (1754-1825)

After Fredrick the line gets a bit fuzzy and I need to do some further research before I can confirm going back further on this line.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Most interesting Ancestor

You can join the fun via Gena-Musing

Here are the details for tonight's assignment:

Your mission this week, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1)  This SNGF is based on the 100 Word Challenge (http://100wc.net/) that school children are participating in around the world.  They are given a word or phrase to write a story about in one hundred words.

1)  Write a short 100 word story using the phrase ",,,the most interesting ancestor I have..." in 100 words.  [Hint:  If you write it in a word processor, you can use Tools > Word Count (or similar) to count words]

2)  Share the story with all of us by writing your own blog post, writing a comment on this blog post, or put it in a Google Plus Stream or Facebook Status or Note.  Please leave a comment on this post so others can find it.

Here's my entry for the week.

My most interesting ancestor is my 5^th Great Grandfather.  Christian Hostetler was born 13 February 1746 in Upper Bern, Pennsylvania.  He was the youngest son of Jacob Hostetler and Anna Lorentz who were Swiss Germany immigrants.  Christian was taken captive by Delaware Indians during a raid on the families Northkill Amish Homestead on September 19^th 1757.  Christian was held by the Indians for seven years.  After his return from captivity he married an orphan girl, Barbara Rupp , in 1769.  Christian and Barbara had seven children. I descend from his oldest son Abraham.  Christian Hostetler died in 1814 in Ohio.

Photo Credit

Genealogy Fun

Your mission this week, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1)  What day of the week was your Father born? Tell us how you found out.

2) What has happened in recorded history on your Father's birth date (day and month)? Tell us how you found out, and list five events.

3)  What famous people have been born on your Father's birth date?  Tell us how you found out, and list five of them.

4)  Put your responses in your own blog post, in a comment on this blog post at Genea-Musings, or in a status or comment on Facebook.

Here's mine.........

1) My Dad, Theodore Stanley Green was born on Friday August 6th, 1943.  www.dayoftheweek.org

2) Here is what happened on this day throughout history: www.worldhistoryproject.org

1623-Pope Urban VIII is elected

1777-Battle of Oriskany -- bloodiest battle of the American Revolution

1832-Lincoln becomes Postmater of New Salem--appointed by President Andrew Jackson

1862-Battle of Kirksville -- American Civil War

1890 Cy Young pitches first Professional game

1914-Serbia declares war on Germany, Austria-Hungary declares war on Russia

1926-Gertrude "Trudy" Ederle swims the English Channel

1935-Cryogenics is a sucess when a monkey "Jekal" is frozen and brought back to life by Dr. Ralph Willard

1945-Hiroshima

1965-Beatles release "Help" album

1978-Pope Paul VI dies

1991 World Wide Web becomes publicly available on the internet

2004-Rick James dies

2012-Curiousity Rover lands on Mars

3)The famous people born on this day in history are: www.historyorb.com

1697-Charles VII The HOly Roman Emperor

1911-Lucille Ball

1917-Robert Mitchum

1928-Andy Warhol

Meet The Parents -- Mom & Dad, their story continues.....

As mentioned in this post and this one, my parents met in detention at Novato High School in Novato, California in 1960.

By the fall of 1961 they had parted ways.  My mom was in her Junior year and my Dad was in his Senior year. 

In December 1961 my Mom became a sister for the 4th time when her mother gave birth to another baby sister.  At that time my Mom was keeping a very large secret. 

At the age of 16, she was nearly five months pregnant.

My Mom recalls this time with mixed emotions.  She had not told a soul of her condition, yet she was excited and terrified all at once.  She knew without a doubt she wanted the baby, but had no idea of how everyone in her life would react. So she kept her secret until she was 7.5 months along, and it was no longer possible to hide her expanding waistline.

Her mother asked her directly "Are you pregnant?"

"Yes." was my Mom's simple reply.

That one word turned her world upside down from the moment it escaped her lips.

My Grandmother's immediate reaction was violent.  She tore a necklace off my Mom's neck, which had been given to my Mom by her own grandmother, stating "You don't deserve this!"

That night my Mom made the phone call to my Dad. And in complete contrast to her parent's reaction, my Dad responded with an excited "Oh Good, Now we'll get married."  Never once did he react negatively, even with all that happened in the ensuing weeks.

My Grandparents were furious!!  They told my Mom she was NOT under any circumstances going to keep the baby..."What would the neighbors think!!" was all my Grandmother cared about at the time.  They arranged for a women from a local home for pregnant teens, to come and speak with my Mom about how things would go and the adoption process.

My Mom recalls her own behavior during this meeting as belligerent, disrespectful and down-right rude!!  She recalls having such a desperate feeling and knew only one thing....No one was taking her baby!

After the disastrous meeting, my Grandparents had a private meeting with my Dad's mother.  Although my parents where not allowed to be present at this meeting, my mom learned later what was discussed.  My Dad's mother told my Mom's parents that if they did not want her to have this baby, that was their decision, but the baby would not go up for adoption!  My Dad would take the child and it would be raised by his family. 

Two weeks later, my Grandfather drove my Mom to a small church in Napa, California where she was met by my Dad, his Mother and his two brothers.  Before my Mom stepped out of the car, my Grandfather said "I hope your happy!" After she got out of the car, my Grandfather drove away.

My Mom walked into the small church on 12 March 1962 and became Mrs. Theodore Green.  She was 16 years old.

Following their wedding, my parents returned to Novato and lived with my Dad's mother.  My mom dropped out of school and on 31 May 1962 my sister Caren was born.

Between 1962 and 1966 my parents had 3 more children; two more girls and one boy.

1967

While their marriage was not a fairytale by any stretch of the imagination, they were happy.

Sadly, my Dad's mother died the summer of 1965, and with her death came a very deep depression my Dad could not recover from.

1968

He began drinking regularly and heavily, although by all accounts he NEVER drank at home.

In the fall of 1972 I was born.

The only photo of my Dad and I in the same space and time.

I am being held by a cousin, and the little boy is my brother.

Just 9 months later, and after nearly 12 years of marriage, on 8 Sept 1973 my father died in a head-on collision after a night of drinking.  His blood alcohol level was 2.8.  He was killed instantly.  By the grace of God, no one else was seriously injured.

While the story of my parents has a sad ending, they did love one another, and even today and after a second marriage, my Mom says my Dad was her soul mate.

I have to say that being the daughter of a "Teen Mom" taught me a lot.  I can vividly recall being 16 and thinking My God, I could never be a mom right know...How did she do it!!

While statistics show children born to teen parents are more likely to become teen parents themselves, this did not happen with my family.

Meet The Parents -- Dad

I suppose, in a lot of ways, my Dad was the first family member I ever researched. But I did so without realising what I was doing was genealogy research.

You see, my Dad died unexpectadly when I was 9months old.  I grew up not having any memory of him.  When I was about 16 years old I set out on a quest of sorts to bring my Dad to life....on paper.  I felt an odd need to make his life more tangible to myself.  I needed to see that he HAD lived.

By the time I was 17 years old, I had accumulated all the information I possibly could.  I had his birth certificate, his death certificate, his social security application, his coroners report, his obituary, articles about his accident, his school records, photos of every home he had lived in, and interviewed every family member and friend who had any memory of him.

At times my quest was upsetting to my mom, not so much for the purpose of my quest, but because at times information I found would be very upsetting to me and that was difficult for her.  I was essentially mourning my Dad's death 16years after it had happened.  There were times my mom wanted to protect me from the sorrow, but it was a process I was determined to go through and a quest I was determined to finish.

1944 Baltimore MD

My Dad was born on a Friday, 6 Aug 1943 in Baltimore, Maryland.  He was the fourth and final child born to my paternal grandparents.  He was born at home while his three older siblings played in the yard outside their Urbman Avenue home.

Urbman Ave., Maryland

His early childhood years, up to age 2, where spent in Baltimore, Maryland with frequent visits to his Grandmother "Mama's" home in Pennsylvania.

Circa 1945

In 1945, the family of six drove across counrty to Novato, California.  California would remain their home for the rest of their lives.  When they arrived in California, they lived in a very small home with the family of my Grandmother's brother, who had settled here the year before.

In 1946 his father, my Grandfather, was diagnosed with lung cancer.  My Uncle recalls his father still heading off to work in San Francisco following surgery to remove a portion of his lung.

My Dad with his Father, 1944 Maryland

In the fall of 1947 my Grandfather lost his battle with cancer, leaving his wife, twin sons age 12, a daughter age 7, and my Dad age 4, without a father.

My Dad with his Mother, his sisiter and his twin brothers 1955

During the next few years my Dad's family settled into life without a father and in 1950 my Grandmother remarried.

Age 7

By all accounts, my Dad was the typical 1950's "Bad Boy" with a charming personality who could always make you laugh.  My mom says "It was his personality that drew me to him."

circa 1957

In 1960, my parents met during detention in high school.  My Mom says it wasn't love at first sight, but that they definitely had a soulful connection from the start.  They dated briefly that fall, then went their separate ways until my mom's accident in the spring of 1961.  After she returned home from her accident, they dated again until the fall of 1961, when they again parted ways.

Little did my Father know at the time they went their separate ways that fall, my Mom was 3 months pregnant with his child!